Experiences of participating in a vocational rehabilitation program in Singapore

Abstract

Purpose

The purposes of this study were to (i) describe the lived experiences of participating in a Singaporean vocational rehabilitation (VR) program among individuals with stroke and spinal cord injury and (ii) identify salient features of the program that facilitated their return-to-work process.

Materials and methods

This was a qualitative phenomenological study. Participants were invited to complete an interview about their return-to-work process after acquiring a disability vis-à-vis their participation in a local VR program. The qualitative data were analyzed inductively.

Results

Twenty-four middle-aged participants with a stroke or spinal cord injury completed the interviews. The participants’ experiences with the local VR program were largely positive. Several key features of the VR program were identified. These were: (i) providing a multi-disciplinary and individualized program; (ii) building positive collaborations between service providers and participants; and (iii) supporting personal growth among participants.

Conclusion

The Singaporean VR program demonstrated internationally recommended best practices. These best practices were beneficial for the participants’ return-to-work process, as reflected by their positive feedback about the program. Our study emphasizes the need for comprehensive and evidence-based VR programs to meet the complex needs of individuals with disabilities who want to return to work.

Implications for rehabilitation

• Multi- or inter-disciplinary care services are needed in vocational rehabilitation (VR) programs to support the complex return-to-work process of clients.

• VR programs should have the capacity to provide client-centered care as their clients may experience diverse, yet unique challenges during their return-to-work process

• VR service providers play a crucial role in engaging and motivating their clients throughout the program to achieve their return-to-work goals

• VR service providers should address concurrent or future concerns that could impact on their clients’ ability to return to or remain at work.

Keywords:

• Vocational rehabilitation
• stroke
• spinal cord injury
• disability
• return-to-work

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank our participants who have taken the time to share their experiences with us for this study. We would also like to thank Dr Jin Chieh Kam and Ms Pauline Koh for their organizational collaboration and support, and our research staff Ms Joanna Yeo, Ms Mingeng Ng, and Mr Nicholas Koh for their assistance and contributions.

Authors’ contributions

All authors contributed to the manuscript development and writing. The first author (NM) managed the recruitment, data collection and analysis as a project manager. The third and corresponding author (MA) was responsible for designing and overseeing the project. All the authors were not involved in the implementation of the TTE program.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education Academic Research Fund Tier 1 awarded to Miho Asano.